Highly Contagious and Deadly – Mystery Illness Spreading Among Dogs

There’s a new warning for dog parents about a mysterious illness that’s spreading across North America that has affected hundreds of dogs and in some cases has been fatal.

The illness is highly contagious, affects dogs rapidly, and causes severe upper respiratory infections that has an unprecedented number of dogs being rushed to the emergency hospital. It has affected hundreds of dogs across the country, hitting Oregon (more than 100 incidents) and Idaho particularly hard.

Experts don’t know what is causing the illness but it has similar symptoms of kennel cough and pneumonia. So dogs could exhibit lethargy, runny nose, cough, sneezing, eye and nose discharge and fever. Vets and experts urge pet owners to bring their dog to the vet if their dogs exhibit any of the symptoms, especially a persistent cough.

Lee Asher from the Asher House shared the news that several of his dogs were hit with the mysterious illness in August. The sanctuary’s dog, Lady, died and several other dogs had to be put in special oxygen chambers to recover due to the damage to their lungs and the difficulty they had breathing. He said the dogs’ health deteriorated very suddenly, without warning. Quarantine measures were taken to stop the spread.

Asher wrote on YouTube, “The larger Oregon dog community has been hit with a rare type of pneumonia, it’s unpredictable, fast acting and quickly leads to an infection in the lungs.” He added, “The vets are unfamiliar with it and all of the ERs have been completely full in our area.”

Kevin Snekvik, the Executive Director of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab, is advising dog owners to avoid dog parks and pet boarding facilities if they can to lower the risk of their dogs catching the disease.

“Your dog will run a fever and they won’t feel good, they’ll become lethargic meaning they want to lie around more when normally they’d be wanting to play outside and play, and like you mentioned the coughing part of it, if that becomes more productive more of a wet cough, like a hacking cough,” Sekvik told KIRO News.

He also advises that dog owners be aware of their dog’s health and monitor them for any changes and that dogs be up-to-date on their vaccinations.

Numerous infectious disease laboratories are trying to determine what is causing the disease which is not responding well to traditional treatments.

Asher reported in a follow up video that the Oregon State Veterinarian is aware of the respiratory disease and teams of researchers are investigating. Thankfully, the other dogs who were very sick have recovered and the sanctuary is no longer affected.